Today marks the inauguration of Joe Biden as president and the end of the Trump administration, as well as two weeks since the white supremacist attacks of January 6. While we are glad to see the change in the White House and the inauguration of a new president, we also know that we will need to work to hold Joe Biden accountable to reverse the harm done over the last four years and implement policy that upholds the rights of working people and communities of color.
We condemn the overt white supremacist acts on the US Capitol Building and state capitols on January 6, 2021. Donald Trump and several other Republican political leaders spurred these actions to perpetrate violence on the Capitol staff and congress members through their calls to stop the vote of the 2020 US presidential election. We want to hold space for the people who were impacted by the racist, anti-Indigenous, xenophobic, anti-semitic, transphobic, homophobic, and sexist imagery touted by these white supremacists. We denounce Capitol Police leadership, the off-duty police officers from Seattle to New York City and New York Fire Department members who acted alongside extreme right-wing paramilitary groups in the coup attempt. We stand in support of Congress’ impeachment of Donald Trump, censuring of Representative Mo Brooks, and against the assertion that this election was fraudulent because the massive turnout of Black voters made it impossible for the Republican candidates to win.
This attack comes the same week as the announcement of the Trump administration’s attack on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Excluding “disparate impact,” or actions that have a discriminatory effect, from the definition of discrimination under the Civil Rights Act is an attempt to curtail the essential rights this Act was created to protect. This inauguration day, we condemn these efforts and call on Congress and President Elect Biden to implement legislation that protects the rights of those most impacted by white supremacist violence.
As a union we must not only fight for essential protections within our contract, but also demand our elected officials guarantee these protections under law. We will pressure the Biden administration to take responsibility for undoing Trump’s legacy as we continue to call for an agenda that centers the needs of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities most impacted by the violence of white supremacy.